Tuhfat al-Ashraf bi-Marifat al-Atraf
- Author died
- 742 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islāmī
Tuhfat al-Ashraf bi-Marifat al-Atraf (The Masterpiece of the Nobles on Knowing the Hadith Incipits) is a hadith reference work by the Shafi'i traditionist Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi (654–742 AH / 1256–1341 CE) that indexes and compiles the transmission chains (asaneed) of the Six Books and their supplementary works according to their hadith incipits (atraf) .
Scope and Sources
Al-Mizzi designed the work to cover the hadiths of the six canonical collections: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, Jami al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Nasai, and Sunan Ibn Majah . In addition to these primary texts, he incorporated several associated treatises by the same authors: the introduction to Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawud's Kitab al-Marasil, al-Tirmidhi's al-Ilal al-Saghir and al-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyyah, and al-Nasa'i's Amal al-Yawm wa-al-Laylah, while drawing from both the minor (al-Sughra) and major (al-Kubra) recensions of al-Nasa'i's Sunan .
In compiling the material, al-Mizzi relied heavily on earlier atraf compilations, particularly the works of Abu Masud al-Dimashqi and Khalaf al-Wasiti for the two Sahihs, and Ibn Asakir's al-Ishraf ala Marifat al-Atraf for the Sunan collections . He adopted Ibn Asakir's organizational model while correcting errors, rectifying omissions, and adding missed narrations .
Structure and Method
The book is arranged as a dictionary of musnads organized alphabetically by the topmost narrator . It contains 1,395 musnads according to one count (or 1,391 in another), comprising 995 (or 986) musnads of male and female Companions, followed by a separate concluding section containing 400 (or 404) musnads dedicated to mursal narrations from the Successors and subsequent generations . The total number of recorded narrations reaches 19,595 including repetitions (or 19,626 in another count) .
Under prolific Companions, al-Mizzi sub-indexes narrations alphabetically by the Successors who transmitted from them, and further divides them by subsequent generations of narrators . For each entry, he cites the hadith's incipit (taraf) rather than the full text, followed by its complete chains of transmission (turuq), noting differences in wording, narrator variations, and manuscript discrepancies across the indexed sources .
To cite the sources concisely, al-Mizzi devised a system of letter abbreviations :
- خ (khāʾ): Sahih al-Bukhari, and خت (khat) for his suspended (muallaq) reports .
- م (mīm): Sahih Muslim and its introduction .
- د (dāl): Sunan Abi Dawud, and مد (mad) for his al-Marasil .
- ت (tāʾ): Jami al-Tirmidhi, and تم (tam) for his al-Shama'il .
- س (sīn): Sunan al-Nasa'i (both al-Sughra and al-Kubra), and سي (say) for his Amal al-Yawm wa-al-Laylah .
- ق (qāf): Sunan Ibn Majah .
- ع (ʿayn): Narrations agreed upon by all six canonical compilers .
- ز (zāy): Additional narrations supplied by al-Mizzi .
- ك (kāf): Rectifications and additions made by al-Mizzi to Ibn Asakir's al-Ishraf .
Reception and Secondary Literature
The work received wide acclaim among subsequent hadith scholars. Ibn Abd al-Hadi recorded that al-Mizzi composed it in 86 parts (juz), stating that he clarified difficulties in it that none before him had resolved . Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani praised it as one of the preeminent works in hadith sciences, noting that scholars across the Islamic world competed to acquire it .
Several scholars composed supplements, marginal notes, and rectifications to the text:
- Al-Mizzi himself compiled an addendum titled Lahaq al-Atraf .
- Ala al-Din Mughaltay compiled remarks on overlooked narrations, largely drawing from al-Nasa'i's al-Sunan al-Kubra .
- Wali al-Din al-Iraqi authored al-Itraf bi-Awham al-Atraf, combining his father Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi's notes with his own observations .
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani wrote al-Nukat al-Ziraf ala al-Atraf, providing extensive glosses and corrections .
Editions and Abridgments
The work was edited by Abd al-Samad Sharaf al-Din and printed in 14 volumes in India (first published in 1384 AH), featuring Ibn Hajar's al-Nukat al-Ziraf in the margins and an accompanying reference volume titled al-Kashshaf an Abwab Maraji Tuhfat al-Ashraf . It was later edited by Bashar Awwad Ma'ruf based on the author's autograph fragments and contemporaneous student copies, published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut (1999) . Khalil Mamun Shayha produced an abridgment stripping the work of its full chains titled Tajrid al-Atraf min Masanid al-Ashraf .
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